In this paper, my aim is to provide a brief characterisation of selected features of the Cavellian understanding of philosophy, especially in view of the role played by autobiographical aspects in Cavell’s philosophical and literary reflections. Autobiography would appear to be one of Cavell’s favourite sources of cognition, at the same time serving as an important medium for his self-promotion. The self-reflection which may be achieved thanks to autobiography is never purely passive; on the contrary, it entails an inherent element (...) of introspection of one’s subjectivity. This creative dimension offers Cavell the opportunity to embark on his reading of Emersonian perfectionism, which he understood as a never-ending upward movement, an unstoppable advance towards self-perfection. At the same time, it reveals the irreducible complexity and pervasiveness of the autobiographical aspects in Cavell’s thought in their interconnections with other aspects of his thought, such as, for example, his unique approach to psychoanalysis (especially in therapeutic contexts), or to aesthetic experience. As a result, Cavell’s work in philosophy turns into a deeply personal experience which defies complete translation into discursive language. (shrink)

The problem of the continuity of science from the medieval to the modern times of the 17th century, when Galileo and Newton developed the correct theory of mechanics, occupied historians of science from the beginning of the 20th century. Some believe that the fourteenth-century English scholars who created the School of Oxford Calculators and their French and Italian followers. with their solutions, laid the foundations for the development of modern physics. Others believe that medieval natural philosophy made no contribution to (...) the development of modern science. The presented book is a voice in this discussion and an attempt to answer the question about the continuity of science. Considering how much has been discovered, edited and written about the Oxford Calculators, the book reviews and compares the results of our research with works of the other historians’ research into the intellectual heritage of these 14th century English thinkers in order to enrich and update the views on the Oxford Calculators’ natural philosophy in perhaps its most fundamental aspect – at least from the point of view of Aristotle’s philosophy – namely the subject of “science of local motion.” The discussion are mostly focused on topics that were important to medieval thinkers and not those that could be most interesting from the modern point of view, and the research are directed on the Oxford Calculators’ tradition in science toward a prospecting of the innovative character of their teaching, and here first of all against the background of Aristotelian theories, and then the subsequent search for possible innovations which could have inspired early modern scientists. As the conclusions of the research on the theories of Oxford calculators are still formulated mainly on the basis of analyzes of incomplete printed texts, the critical editions of Latin texts are offered. These are not only the most famous Calculators’ works, such as William Heytesbury’s De tribus praedicamentis: de motu locali or John Dumbleton’s Part III of the Summa logicae et philosophiae naturalis, but also of a hither to unknown work by Richard Kilvington, i.e., his question on local motion and the question on local motion written by the anonymous author of the treatise De sex inconvenientibus. (shrink)

As part of our research project titled The Shaping of Subjectivity and Biographies of Individuals in the Face of the Transformations of a Neo-modern Society, data was collected with a tool of narrative interviewing focusing on the present experience. In this article, we propose a nondichotomous way of analyzing this qualitative material. The inspiration for creating the presented analytics is the epistemological position of the Gestalt psychotherapy as well as phenomenology (Merleau-Ponty and Waldenfels). The narrative interviews were aimed at theorizing (...) (about) subjectivity in the biographies of contemporary Poles, but the analysis focuses not so much on depicting subjectivity as ‘basic agency’ – i.e. that which provides the possibility of action, interaction, self-narrating – but, rather, on seeing subjectivity as a component that emerges only in the long process of narration and interaction. (shrink)

This article analyzes the preaching activities of Antonii Radyvylovsky in order to distinguish in the preacher’s output the general characteristics of the Baroque period, formed under the influence of other cultures. Particular attention is paid to the humorously ridiculous aspect of the preacher's works, which have not been considered at all before. The source base for the study is the handwritten and printed sermons of Antonii Radyvylovsky from his collections The Fenced Garden of the Virgin Mary and The Crown of (...) Christ. It is concluded that Ukrainian Baroque, while absorbing the main features of European Baroque, had its own characteristics. In this context, the legacy of the prominent XVII century Ukrainian preacher Antonii Radyvylovsky constitutes a typical example of the introduction of Latinizing Christian traditions into the Orthodox liturgy. In the center is a "living" earthly man with his virtues and flaws. The main theme in the moralistic examples in Radyvylovsky's sermons is that of a righteous and sinful (moral and immoral) life. His humorous and satirical discourses allowed Radyvylovsky to develop in his listeners a capacity for a paradoxically Baroque repentance, which is closely tied to personal reflection through laughter. (shrink)

The paper presents and discusses the principle of causability as expressed in many civil codes. This principle requires that the existence of any obligations of transfers of ownership the legal cause – usually associated with 3 types of dealings having been identified by Roman jurists and elaborated by postglosators and founders of the 17th-century natural law movement, namely: causa solvendi, donandi, aquirendi, or causa cavendi – creates a condition for validity of legal act. Referring to the philosophical background of the (...) analytical philosophy of intention and intersubjectivity, authors advocate a modified theory of causability, according to which it is permissible for the parties to invoke abstract actions if this is not opposed by binding legal provisions. (shrink)

Fundator badań: Grant NCN nr UMO-2016/23/B/HS1/00430.

The goal of this thesis is to analyse the notion of free will from the perspectives of various stances in the philosophy of mind. It employs an approach quite different than the more standard one, in which philosophers try to answer the question “do we have free will?” directly. The first chapter of this thesis contains an analysis of the compatibilism/incompatibilism debate – the question “is free will compatible with the determinism?” Showing that the answer to this question means something (...) different for compatibilists and incompatibilists and the fact that it also depends on assumptions about the mind that a researcher has, provides a rationale for the approach chosen in this thesis. The subsequent chapters contain discussions about the relation between free will and dualism, materialism and transcendental idealism. The considerations about free will in dualistic stances serve as a background for the two final chapters, which contain the most important conclusions of the thesis. In the third chapter I discuss the relation between free will and materialism with a focus on whether it is sensible to talk about free will in the context of eliminative materialism. To do that, I go more in depth into the analysis of how artificial neural networks process information. In the last chapter, devoted to transcendental idealism, I present a solution to the free will problem that incorporates eliminative materialism on the empirical level. (shrink)

Having revealed an illusion of man’s cognitive efforts, Kant sealed the progress of enlightenment inscribed into a historical process, with a deep conviction that an ancient Greek prescription to “know thyself” was finally fulfilled. A man became aware of being equipped with a mind, and accordingly, with freedom as well as the ability to act morally, still remaining a finite natural being with limited cognitive skills. This critical self-knowledge of an enlightened man relieved him of his nonage to open his (...) eyes for a new vision of both the world and a man himself regarded as a self-conscious subject and active creator of his fate. The character and ontological status of religious beliefs, the enlightened man confesses, are in fact defined by the famous Kantian formula: as if. Driven by moral reasons, they are distinguished with a rationality for which a fundamental value is the Highest Good, purely rationalistic construction, a kind of God thought to be an essential being and a ration for existence of the phenomenal world. (shrink)

The rediscovery of Kant’s Doctrine of Right resulted in many attempts to apply Kant’s position to current affairs. This research often faces the problem of defining clear borders of what in Kant’s texts needs to be considered as rational core of his theory and what is merely a theoretically less significant consequence of particular political situation of 18th century. My claim is that in order to be able to adequately apply Kant’s ideas and concepts to the 21st century problems, the (...) process of application of his rational principles to the world of experience must be reconstructed. This will not only bring about the core structure of right but may also determine which elements of Kant’s legal theory are contingent to changing empirical data. I recognise two levels of Kant’s application of the rational principles to human condition, which consecutively determine the rational core of right and secondary structural divisions that emerge from contingent data about political history of mankind. The aim of the article is to investigate the fundamental steps of Kant’s application on the first level, in order to reconstruct the rational core of his legal theory. In the first step I analyse the universal principle of right in order to clarify Kant’s concept of a right. Further, I investigate the axiom of external freedom, which, in conjunction with human condition generates the necessity of using external objects of choice and therefore grounds the emergence of acquired rights. Nevertheless, these rights, as particular legal titles that limit the freedom of others, cannot be reconciled with universal freedom in the state of nature. Therefore, from the establishment of innate and acquired right, there arises the necessity of public right and entering the civil condition. (shrink)

This essay describes the impact of COVID-19 related policies on the democratic fabric of German society, focusing the situation of children. It applies a methodology of ethics for salutogenesis, exploring, how policies and underlying motifs align with doing the right things for the right reasons. Five key areas are analyzed in the social-political specter of power of health-related judgement, connecting psychology, politics, economy, academia and culture. The discussion finds that the crisis reveals grave and basic flaws in the texture of (...) democratic culture that could be healed by serious measures to reinvigorate the spirit of the German Constitution. (shrink)

The popular opinion sees Middle Ages as a “bad” period holding that it was a time of regress in civilisation and was characterized by exaggerated interest in religious and theological issues leading to a neglect of all other aspects of human existence. The two claims are refuted with arguments taken from the history of civilisation and science, as well as from history of political doctrines and history of universities.

Since the beginning of 2020, lockdowns have been introduced in numerous countries across the world in response to the emergence of coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 that causes the COVID-19 disease. Although the topic of lockdowns has been considered from numerous perspectives, it has not yet been analyzed in the context of Adam Smith’s economic philosophy and liberalism. This paper aims to list – at least to some extent, as the topic is very broad – the most prominent arguments that have arisen in (...) the worldwide discussion on the effectiveness and side effects of lockdowns. In addition, the work provides some elements of Smith’s economic philosophy and liberalism. Finally, the arguments that have arisen in the academic discussion since the introduction of lockdowns are analyzed, and the legitimacy of lockdowns is assessed in the context of Smith’s principles. The methods used for the analysis are text exegesis and rational reconstruction. As far as the conclusions are concerned, an explicit assessment of the legitimacy of lockdowns in the discussed context is considered impossible, although for many elements of Smith’s liberalism, lockdowns are not legitimate at all. (shrink)

The state is subject of interest to many scientific disciplines: constitutional and international law, sociology, philosophy, administrative and political sciences, social psychology, economics, political and economic history, military sciences, regional studies and, of course, political geography and geopolitics. In the course of history, from ancient to modern times, the state was defined in very different ways.The author comes out in his deliberations from the analysis of the elements that make up the various definitions of the state. Then he reviews the (...) classification of functions that the modern state fulfills and analyzes the way in which they are implemented in various countries around the world, trying to answer the question, is the state necessary for citizens and for what?Finally, the author draws attention to the frequent undertaking of the subject matter of the functioning of the state in the world’s belles-lettres in epic works and in dramas both in the past and nowadays.The last issue raised in the paper is the analysis of the functioning of unrecognized countries, mainly European ones, and what are the consequences of their exclusion from the international community influencing the life of their inhabitants, economy and functioning of their societies. (shrink)

The author focused on the figure of Emmanuel Mounier, known for his socially engaged philosopher. He said that when we talk about the concept of "personalism" today, in the classical, narrow definition, we meet Mounier and his philosophical legacy.

The article mainly discusses Edward Dembowski's philosophy of creation in connection with his Hegelian influences, leftist associations and the ongoing discussion in nineteenth century romantic polish philosophy. The nineteenth century, with its German Idealism and French tendency to act in the name of social rights, had introduced new ideas to work with during harsh historical times. Dembowski, amongst other Poles, was the closest to constructing a coherent metaphysical system for the philosophy of creation. In the paper, I try to show (...) a part of his intellectual evolution, stretching from defining philosophy as knowledge itself in the form of a Hegelian system, through his critique of Hegel's and Cieszkowski's systems, up to his own established system – the philosophy of creation and its social connections. I also speculate about which of his philosophical ideas can remain relevant today. (shrink)

Best known for his ethical works, Immanuel Kant was part of the liberal Enlightenment and addressed most of the principal political issues of his day. Several of his major works were written in the wake of the storming of the Bastille in Paris, while Europe was engaged in the French Revolutionary Wars. His rejection of revolution but endorsement of the principles for which the French revolutionaries were fighting, as well as his plea for a federation of European states that would (...) settle disputes peacefully, reflected his engagement with the controversies raised by the Revolution. But, although he could not countenance revolution, he declared that, once a revolutionary government has succeeded in establishing itself, citizens should obey the new government, rather than try to restore the ousted authorities. (shrink)

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel was one of the philosophic giants of the nineteenth century. Well versed in both ancient and more recent philosophical tracts, he rejected the individualism of Hobbes and Locke, as well as their notion that the state was an agency set up in the first place to protect life and property, and, drawing inspiration from Aristotle, outlined a vision of the state as an agency bound, in the first place, to protect the weak and the powerless. Hegel (...) further rejected Kant’s individualistic ethics and counseled that ethical behavior had to be understood as taking place in a social context, with real duties toward other people. For Hegel, an individual had rights and duties within the context of the family, in the community, and, as a citizen, vis-à-vis the state. He emphasized the network of duties in which each individual finds himself, urging political moderation and concern for the good of the entire community. He has been condemned as a proto-totalitarian, lauded as a democrat of sorts, and described variously as liberal, anti-liberal, authoritarian, conservative-monarchist, and constitutionalist. This essay will argue that Hegel came to champion a constitutional-legal order under an autocratic monarch, with protection for liberal values. The absolute authority of the monarch, thus, was limited to those powers which he needed in order to advance and protect the interests of the citizens of the realm. (shrink)

In the article, I attempted to indicate that in modern communication, i. e. also in social life, ratiomorphism has been appearing. I define it as an unconscious, innate, genetically determined and teleonomically survival-driven cognitive faculties, skills and patterns of behavior present in all living being, including humans. It cannot be, however, associated only with emotions or irrationalism. In modern communication dominated by the new media, ratiomorphism takes on the form of technoratiomorphism. Therefore, it is obvious that ratiomorphism also appears in (...) the sphere of meaning. In the pre-internet era, meaning was associated with rationality and universal values such as truth, goodness, and beauty. In the internet era, there has been a turn towards ratiomorphic values: truth is being replaced with acceptance, goodness with utility, and beauty with attractiveness. Paradoxically, than new strategy for finding and creating meaning is a rational strategy in the contemporary communicational environment. (shrink)

The aim of the article Different faces of old age as perceived by the students of Polish studies is to present how old teachers perceive old age. The exemplification material consists of three texts: Winter tale. An essay on the old age of Ryszard Przybylski, “The Old Man’s Route”. An attempt at old age politics by Tadeusz Sławek and Lala Jacek Dehnel. Hermeneutical reading allowed for the creation of several images of autumn of life: a painful, marked by suffering attempts (...) to overcome and suffering in a creative act; old age as a possibility of a deeper look at the spiritual dimension of human existence and old age reconciled with the laws of transiting the events immersed in the act of memorization. (shrink)

Giacomo Leopardi is one of those authors whose texts oscillate on the border between literature and philosophy. It is true that Leopardi does not use traditional forms of philosophical expression, but the fact is that most of the considerations of the Italian thinker are expressed by the simultaneous conduct of two discourses: literary and philosophical. Leopardi experimented almost every form of literary expression, but he went down in history mainly as a poet, who contained a significant part of his highest (...) beliefs in poetry. The practice of philosophizing through poetry is nothing new in literature, and the various connections between literature and philosophy are almost ancient, but the ongoing discussions in the world of Italian critics about the relationship between Leopardi and philosophy suggest that the reflective lyrics of the famous poet from Recanati are an noteworthy case. This article is a reflection on the use of figures of speech in the process of explaining the worldview by Leopardi, with particular emphasis on metaphor, and on the overall impact of the poetic medium on the presentation and shaping of adopted ideology. (shrink)

The article refers to the issue of journalism education at university, in terms of the philosophical categories of meaning and truth. The author analyses the curricula of selected Polish higher education institutions in the majors of journalism and social communication, and refers to studies on education in journalism ethics in Poland conducted in 2015–2016. In his academic reflection, he indicates the inadequacy of university education for the proper preparation of journalists for fulfilling their profession when faced with the challenges of (...) the modern era. (shrink)

The discussion centres around two issues: the issue of meaning, and the question whether the tools of rhetoric viewed as the basic tool in interpersonal communication can be helpful in reading and interpreting meaning. The author understands meaning after G. Frege: […] let the following phraseology be established: A proper name expresses its sense, stands for or designates its reference. By means of a sign we express its sense and designate its reference. The purpose of the discussion is also to (...) answer a much more general question: whether through rhetoric can one say something important about the world, so do they define a philosophical thesis or only, from various perspectives, one searches for the most probable answer to a hypothesis. The presented assumption is a result of the suggestion of Willard van Orman Quine: Rhetoric is the literary technology of persuasion, for good or ill, and it entails something which Randal Marlin defined as referentially translucent expressions. Therefore, the hypothesis I shall try to prove is the following: can the sense of any expression be, using the tools of rhetoric, defined to such an extent so that it becomes a philosophical thesis and not a hypothesis? So that in terms of both the subject and the object the expression could be considered as true. Then and only then can one say that such an expression has/contains some sense. (shrink)

Since it intensified in 2015, the migration crisis has become one of the major topics of media coverage. With time those numerous pieces resulted in society becoming indifferent to the plight of migrants. The newcomers, stereotypically treated as aliens, became a group of the unnecessary and unneeded, which then started to bear social tension and divisions. The author of the article intends to indicate that reportage/feature, radio reportage in particular, is one of the methods for building dialogue between cultures. In (...) following the remarks of Ryszard Kapuściński and Emmanuel Levinas, the author noted that an encounter with “the Other” is one of the major challenges of the 21st century. The three analysed programmes seem to prove the fact that the medium of radio may fulfil a special role in overcoming “globalised indifference.”. (shrink)

The reviewer analyses the monograph Problematic-Thematic Units and Philosophical­-Esthetical Parameters of the British Post-Postmodern Novel written by Dmy­tro Drozdovskyi, a Ukrainian scholar from Taras Shevchenko Institute of Literature of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, member of The European Society for the Study of English. In the monograph, the author has outli­ned the theory of the post-postmodern novel based on the analysis of the key novels of contemporary British fiction. The review states that the Ukrainian scholar has developed the (...) theory proposed by Fredric Jameson regarding the post-postmodern features of Cloud Atlas and also discusses the concept of meta-modernity as one of the sections in the post­-postmodern literary paradigm in the UK. Drozdovskyi argues that meta-modernism cannot be the only term that explains all the peculiarities of contemporary British fiction, which also cannot be outlined as meta-modern but as post-postmodern. The scholar provides a new theory of the novel based on the exploitation of real and unreal historical facts and imagined alternative histories and multifaceted realities. Further­more, the reviewer pays attention to the contribution this monograph has for world literary studies spotlighting the theory of literary meta-genre patterns, as Drozdo­vskyi provides a theory according to which literary periods can be divided into those in which the carnival is the dominant meta-genre pattern and those that exploit the mystery as the meta-genre pattern. The reviewer analyses the key thematic units explained by Drozdovskyi as the key ones that determine the semiosphere of the contemporary British novel. The scho­lar also states that the post-postmodern British novel exploits the findings of German Romanticism and Kant’s philosophy. (shrink)

The article presents the essence as well as various models of academic explanation and the explanatory value of understanding, indicating their usability and limitations as regards understanding why and how tourism functions. Particular attention has been paid to the epistemological dimension of tourism research, as well as its new directions. The author has referred to two models concerning the epistemological aspects of tourism research where the focal point is the category of ‘truth about tourism’. These have been presented in two (...) articles by John Tribe. (shrink)

The originality of Cossio’s works is expressed by a strong relationship between philosophy of law and his philosophical assumptions. The starting point for deliberating on law are widely recognized ontological and epistemological contentions. Cossio justifies his legal theses basing them on his philosophical views. Egology derives from Edmund Husserl’s phenomenology which is related to some elements of William Dilthey’s philosophy of culture. Martin Heiddeger’s and Immanuel Kant’s philosophies are the basis too. The first part describes Cossio’s ontologies of subjects otherwise (...) known as regional ontologies. Methods for examining the above subjects and gnoseological acts are presented here too. The second part presents the characteristics of law as a cultural subject. The article is not only a report. Its aim is also to show that Carlos Cossio’s legal philosophy is semantic in character. (shrink)

We almost every day direct our actions with reference to social, moral or legal norms and oughts. However, oughts and norms cannot be perceived through the senses: how can we “grasp” them, then? Adolf Reinach distinguishes enacted norms and oughts created through a social act of enactment, from moral norms and oughts existing in themselves independently of any act, knowledge or experience. I argue that this distinction is not a distinction between two species of oughts within a common genus: it (...) is rather a deeper ontological distinction between two modes of existence that are quite different, even though both are objective, according to Reinach. This ontological distinction is reflected in the way in which enacted oughts and moral oughts can be grasped, respectively: in the former case, the enacted ought is grasped by going back to the underlying social act from which it springs; in the latter, a “grasping through feeling” of the moral values is implied. (shrink)

The article names the conditions that a conversation has to fulfill in order to become a dialogue. The author undertakes to present the philosophy and ethics of dialogue, which were established based on the concept of dialogue. Its representatives include Jürgen Habermas and Karl-Otto Apel. Next, on the example of German business ethics, it is demonstrated how the philosophy and ethics of dialogue could become the foundation of the Republican economic ethics, developed by Peter Ulrich, and corporate ethics, put forward (...) by Horst Steinmann. In the author’s opinion, they may prove useful in developing a new version of business ethics, formed upon reflection about experiences of the financial and economic crisis that began in 2008 and the effects of which are visible to this day. (shrink)

The aim of this article is to point to the unsolved research problems connected to causation in the philosophy of economics. First, the paper defines causation and discusses two notable approaches, i.e. the realist theory of causation and the instrumentalist theory of causation. Second, it offers a review the current research activity focusing on the problem of causation in economics. Third, it discusses several case studies. On the grounds of comparison of the research practice of economists and the current issues (...) undertaken by the philosophers of economics, the paper concludes that there is a gap between the research practice and the normative methodological analyses and indicate the research questions that need to be addressed. (shrink)

The period since the 1960s has been characterised by growing societal concern with urban heritage protection and the development of legislative, fiscal and urban planning instruments that seek to ensure the protection and enhancement of historic buildings and environments. International organisations such as UNESCO and European level documents such as the European Spatial Development Perspective have stressed the cultural and economic value of the ‘wise management of natural and cultural heritage’. Since the 1970s many cities have sought to redefine and (...) regenerate themselves through a revalorisation of their past and the protection and enhancement of their historic urban landscapes. Urban heritage has thus often come to be seen as a component of the territorial capital of places, and often had a symbiotic relationship with the objective of urban regeneration. However, urban heritage is not a static concept and ideas about what constitutes heritage, the value of different historic urban environments, and the contribution they can make to city development and regeneration continue to evolve. This paper reflects on this evolution in the context of the English planning system and illustrates some key trends and issues surrounding urban heritage through a consideration of recent and ongoing heritage related planning episodes in the northern English city of Liverpool. (shrink)